Gandy Dancer Saloon

This is a really cool place, right near the river. Gotta check out the huge ball room, which I guess used to be the train depot? Too cool.
Decent burger, good beer selection. I have my first Yeungling’s here.

Ok. Now let’s not fool ourselves. This is the bar to the Grand Concourse. Same kitchen. Same management. Same awesomeness. Now as for the menu differences.
When dining in the bar one can order from the Grand Concourse menu and Gandy Dancer menu, which in my opinion makes this the best place to eat. That combined with the ridiculously inexpensive happy hour prices just makes it an excellent spot to grab a bite. (Now keep in mind, when dining in the Grand Concourse, you can’t order from the Gandy Dancer menu)
What to order… So many options, where to begin–
I’ll start w Happy Hour bites. Yes, say yes to them. They’re priced at a few dollars each and great for ordering a bunch with a group. I’m partial to the steamed dumplings. Yummy & inexpensive.
The bar menu. What I love about the bar menu is that it’s fantastic to show up and order a hearty meal to warm you up in the cold months or a crisp light flavorful meal to refresh one in the summer.
To begin. The pasta is awesome. Made in house. My personal favorite is the artichoke, shrimp, and angel hair in a light tomato base. It seems to be close to or the same item that disappeared from the Grand Concourse menu.
The pasta menu is great. So many options. Light sauces, hearty sauces, spicy, tortellini, so many choices.
My second favorite pasta dishes are a tie between the Cajon Chicken Tortellini and the Shrimp Fettuccine Verde. The Cajon Chicken Tortellini is served in a cream sauce with mushrooms. (And I say I hate mushrooms) It is really a fantastic mix of the right amount of Cajon mixed with the cream mushroom sauce and chicken & tortellini. A fantastic dance of spice and everything perfectly hits your taste buds
Fettuccine is a very traditional dish that I typically am not a huge fan of. The Shrimp Fettuccini Verde is a Spinach fettuccine with goat cheese in a cream tomato sauce. It’s different in a really good way that you must like goat cheese to enjoy.
I also love the Shrimp & Crab Salad. The crab is Lump Crab. I have it with tomatoes & cucumbers. It’s a Greek style vinaigrette. Delicious. Great in the summer.
The Gandy House Salad is also very crisp & delicious. I order is customized without onion or pepperancini. It comes w fresh & sundries tomatoes along with cucumber in a vinaigrette. Another great start to a meal.
The bread served with dinner is delicious. Same as the Grand Concourse’s. I hate salmon pâté. It’s a personal choice but my kid loves it. The bar tabled area is very kid friendly. We’ve taken Mr. Toddler since he was an nugget and they’ve always accommodated his needs. His favorite item at both locations is their pâté. (It’s also served during the Sunday Brunch.)
My family loves the oysters. Again, another thing I don’t care for. They adore the Grand Concourse & Gandy Dancers Selection. They’re the same. I personally don’t consume anything from their raw bar other than shrimp so I cant comment specifically on items. The family seems to love it. That’s what I know.
The one item that my husband ordered and didn’t love was the sirloin steak. He said he wouldn’t get it again. He said it was good but just not what he typically would order.

Today it was my husband’s turn to pick where we ate. He chose The Gandy Dancer. We had not been there in over 20 years. It is in an older historical building at Station Square. When you go in it’s like walking back in time. It has all of the original dark woodwork. There are pictures of Pittsburgh dated in the early 1900s. The lighting is low and on a hot day like today it was a great setting for lunch.
Our server was Colin. He gave us the BEST customer service we’ve had in a long time.
My husband ordered the jambalaya. It came with a salad. I shared the salad with him and it was really good. It had romaine lettuce, purple onions, tomatoes, and cucumbers. It was dressed with a balsamic dressing. It was very fresh and very tasty. I didn’t try my husband’s jambalaya but he cleaned his plate. It had huge shrimp, scallops, mussels, and salmon. It looked wonderful but I’m a wimp when it comes to spiciness so I chose not to try it.
I had the Blue Crab Club sandwich. It had crab, tomatoes, bacon, lettuce, and Boursin. I asked that they leave the tomatoes off. It came with fries and coleslaw. The sandwich was very good. The crunch of the lettuce and the toast went well with the creaminess of the crab. The coleslaw was a little different than most. It had cabbage and carrots but it also had green peppers. I’m not sure what they used for dressing but it wasn’t mayo or vinegar. The French fries were cooked perfectly.
I asked to see their dessert menu. Colin said all of the desserts were made on site. The Key Lime pie was tempting but I went for the Mango Sorbet. It was smooth and a perfect summer dessert. It came with a couple of raspberries and a pirouette cookie. My husband was only going to have a taste but couldn’t stop at one spoonful.
We definitely won’t wait another 20 years to go back.

I love this place. I’ve been going here since I was a kid and love the 20s/​30s décor at the Gandy. I’m not fancy enough for the GC so this is a nice medium for me. Their clam chowder is gold standard, their sandwiches are yums, and the atmosphere is classic. The servers/​kitchen staff is always pleasant and helpful. On sundays they have the legendary donut robot cranking out delicious fried treats for all the boys and girls… donuts don’t get fresher than this.

New trendy places come and go but there is a reason the Gandy Dancer in the Grand Concourse has been around and become a Pittsburgh institution. The décor and professional and friendly bartenders take you back to a time when people had pride in what they did. They have a great happy hour for both food and drinks. Not only does the bar have their own menu you can also order from the Grand Course menu as well. They bring in fresh oysters from different locations and one of the days they have a $ 1 oyster special. However this last trip I went for the sliders with blue cheese. They were decent and the caramelized onions and blue cheese really made the burgers. Can’t wait to go back.

How can you not like this place? It’s like the Godfather of Pittsburgh– so much history, so much character, so much delightful romance. A visit to the Gandy Dancer always puts my wife in the mood… ;) In the mood to head home afterwards & cuddle.
We didn’t know about the Thursday Oyster special ($ 1 each) so we came here on a Tuesday. I had my heart set on oysters so I ordered a dozen (3 for $ 5). They were fresh & meaty with just enough salt water to make them taste like the ocean. I could have settled for a little less shell bits mixed in, but I guess that comes with the territory. The issue we had was with their draft beer system. The Coors Light smelled a bit sour & tasted a little bitter. I think the lines needed cleaned. Nancy offered to get us drafts from the other bar but they too tasted bitter. We ended up drinking bottles. I hope they have the lines cleaned before our next visit…

This is a very difficult review for me. I’ve been an enthusiastic, boastful, bragging regular customer of The Gandy Dancer for many, many years. Great food, great drinks and the ambience; can’t find better. I was very excited to take my partner for drinks and dinner tonite before the Riverhounds Soccer game.
Wow! What a disappointment! Sparse crowd, but less restaurants (Joe’s Crab Shack, Hard Rock, etc) had a 35 – 40 minute wait? Our waitress wasn’t the best, very loopy, spacey, wasn’t sure about the menu. She forgot parts of our order; the order was wrong, and we asked for water several times. She probably could be better (efficient??) with more training? But she’s not working at McDonalds? My partner ordered the fried fish dinner; very tasty. I ordered salad, with no onions, and honey mustard dressing and the scallop appetizer. I recd salad with sliced onions and house dressing? I Didn’t return, because I didn’t want to wait. But the «Dynamite scallop» appetizer was the biggest disappointment! 5 ½ shell; scallops crab encrusted; basil drizzle. But I recd 5 ½ shells with 2 dime size scallops (maybe smaller) on 3 shells and 1 tiny scallop on 2 shells. I had to re look at the menu questioning «crab encrusted» that didn’t exist?
Placed on black paper with shredded «something» in the middle? So sad; this was my go to place for friends, family, and anyone asking where to eat? Management needs to be more on top of what is going on. No complaints about the bartenders-​great!
Tourists with children want a place to eat; not a kid friendly menu? Will I return, absolutely, it’s a Pittsburgh tradition, but will question the quality of the food. Now, too many other restaurant choices.

I visited the Gandy Dancer for the first time yesterday evening and I have a WONDERFUL experience. The restaurant is gorgeous, and the food lives up to the building it is housed in. I ate on the bar side of the restaurant, and the prices were VERY reasonable for the wonderful quality of a meal that I received. I’m not sure if the restaurant side is more expensive (that’s what I thought I over heard.) The chef who served us was extremely personable, kind, knowledgeable, and just made the whole experience pleasant. I can’t wait to pass this restaurant on to friends!

This has to be our favorite bar in Pittsburgh. We love the old world atmosphere and the décor. We enjoy sitting at the bar having a drink made by the well trained bartenders and just taking in the ambiance. There’s just something about it and it just feels right to us. This is the place that we choose to go when we feel like celebrating something or if we are meeting up with friends or if we just need to have a relaxing time on a Saturday afternoon. We even spent this past New Year’s Eve with them… what a wonderful time that was! We are planning to do it again! It is always perfectly relaxing and enjoyable. There’s never a bad time to go to the Gandy Dancer! Many years ago, the bartender introduced me to what is now my all time favorite cocktail – a Hendricks Gin Martini with a cucumber. This is the place to get one for sure! The prices might be a bit steep but if you hit it for happy hour – you can save some $$…they have a great Happy Hour. As for food — -you can’t go wrong with the Charley’s Chowder! That’s all I ever order when I go because I have loved it since the day they opened… way back when!!! But, I’ve often picked off my husband’s plate and I can vouch for almost all of their seafood entrees! As time goes on, I find that we choose places for the experience more than the food. You can get good food at hundreds of places but not every place has the experience of the Gandy Dancer. Why did I take me so long to write a review??? Now that I have, I have to plan another trip. This weekend? Yes!!!

Located in the, well, grand Grand Concourse building, right next to the restaurant, Gandy Dancer puts on a killer Happy Hour every weeknight. There are drink as well as food specials. My husband and I stopped by on Friday the 13^th prior to our Grand Concourse dinner reservations next door, and what a great decision that was! As can be expected, the $ 5 glasses of wine during Happy Hour were more than twice the price in the restaurant.
We gobbled up an order of the craft beer battered cod (light and flakey and served with thick rich tartar sauce; couldn’t have been better), the raw oysters (all 3 were nice and mild, just the way I like them), and the white flatbread (a nice cracker-​thin crust). That, a few glasses of wine, and we were off to our dinner reservations next door. I have to say, all things considered and bang for buck, Gandy Dancer stands right up to Grand Concourse.
Service was great, efficient. We snagged the last open table in the jovial bar area, and our server was on top of everything. The food and refills came out quickly despite Happy Hour being in full swing.

I had an interesting experience here with my group of friend the other night. There were 7 of us, which is a bigger group. Our server was super nice, but a bit odd. He had a hard time keeping everything straight and seemed really overwhelmed.
We all ordered wine, which was over priced! We also got a few things to snack on. The food was fine, but nothing special.
I will not be running back here anytime soon.

A business colleague chose Gandy Dancer for our lunch meeting. He is a regular customer. The restaurant was not busy on a Monday. But service was lackadaisical at best, waitress was AWOL for long periods. Salad course came. Ehh but ok. Entrees took.effing.for.ever. asked about it twice. Others joined us for coffee but our entrees still hadn’t arrived. Finally they came. My ‘pan seared scallops’ were in a pond of pinkish thin sauce and were nowhere near being seared. Poached and tasteless. Coffee was served lukewarm. Rather than offer a fresh hot brew, our waitress offered to take it and warm it up. Amateur hour in the kitchen and on the floor. My host, their regular customer, was embarrassed. Chuck Meur restaurants used to be terrific. This one has sadly declined.